Entries in the elder scrolls: skyrim
(6)

Here's a look at Dawnguard, the upcoming expansion to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which looks like a whole chain of events somewhat similar to the Companions quest line, except focusing on vampires rather than werewolves. Also, horseback combat and giant fucking frost trolls. You know, Game Jam shit!

Vampirism was a total pain in the ass in Oblivion, and I didn't think it was worth the trade off of not being able to travel in daylight without taking damage. And if you wanted to reverse the curse, you had to spend hours upon hours toiling through a quest that you may or may not have enough focus to complete. As that was a throw-in and this is an actual entire mass of downloadable content, I'm hoping it's a little better implemented and runs deeper than just faster regeneration and shit. From the looks of it, transforming into a true beast of the night is an option, which is a step in the right direction.

It was just last week. I was screaming at Skyrim along with fellow OBG conspirator Eric B., when we began to flesh out the details of an online Elder Scrolls game. You create your character, choose your race, and start in a predefined, racially logical area of Tamriel. You begin your quest learning the ropes on your own, and as you gain experience, you venture out farther in the world. Before long you meet with fellow players to systematically destroy whoever and whatever you want in the open world fashion that has endeared The Elder Scrolls series to us for all this time. As it was detailed, we pictured this title in the fashion of Borderlands, or Left 4 Dead; more of an online co-op experience than a massively multiplayer affair. You could enter instanced towns with hundreds of others to find a group of adventurers, or enter player-vs-player areas across the world. It is brilliant stuff, and I was convinced the idea would make us millions. Until it was pickpocketed. I'm absolutely convinced that Microsoft and ZeniMax have tapped Kinect mics, taken our idea, made some lawyer-proof changes, and pushed this thing out to the public in what I imagine to be two sleepless nights. Stolen Game Jam?! Nah, not really.

The Elder Scrolls Online has been in development since 2007 and is set for release next year, far eclipsing any timetable I could have imagined. I'm not worried about the time and effort placed into TESO, but rather the impact it will have on the future of Elder Scrolls games. If this online title is a hit, it's not a stretch to say future sinlge player Elder Scrolls games could suffer. MMOs are a time, money, and power-sink for everyone, dev and player side. If this title kills and becomes Zenimax's golden child and cash farm, all their focus could possibly go into upkeep and creating additional content, causing all other single-player games to suffer a lack of Skyrim (see: awesomeness.) Tamriel is a massive, lore-filled world ya know. On the flip, what if The Elder Scrolls Online burns to the ground like a fallen Blood Dragon? It's ashes scattered across the gaming world in the form of talented employees being absorbed by other studios like a soul of its former host. These situations do happen in worst case scenarios, and in these days of tight pockets, failure of a heavily invested MMO can be defined as a worst case. Of course, it's too soon to assume any failures or successes, but it can't hurt to speculate right?

We know The Elder Scrolls games come from a long line of successful titles, filled with action, adventure, and the open world before you. The Elder Scrolls Online is confirmed to be fully voiced, which is a positive notch in its belt. As a Star Wars: The Old Republic vet, let me tell you that a fully voiced MMO really lends to the immersion. We also know that ZeniMax Online Studios will be foregoing Skyrim's free and open battle system in place of a more typical hotbar system that most massive multiplayer titles use. Ooooh, not a good move here, guys. Part of what made Skyrim so exciting is how wonderfully combat was handled, and being able to do just about whatever you wanted to a ill-fated frost troll in real time. The point-and-click hotbar model will strip all that good and could make this title just another MORPG in an M market. Finally, and maybe most importantly, the open world and the affect the player has on it will be completely marginalized in the online realm. Previously, if I didn't like the room offered to me by an innkeeper, or the tone of voice a villager was giving me, I could snuff them out. Forever. Two years later, that innkeeper would still be dead, and that villager's wife would still be widowed. Or maybe, the widow married the innkeeper's husband, and had become the inn's de facto owner. That was the beauty of the game: the randomness, the finality, and the long-standing impact that came along with it. In a world co-owned by hundreds of thousands of other players, this type of dynamic is impossible. How will I be able to permenanty end any non-player character that glitches at me, when the Breton Mage aptly named Ishartedmyself needs that character to complete a faction-specific class quest? If these mechanics were allowed, Tamriel would be knee-deep in NPC corpses, and populated with nothing but players. Of course, if that were the case, the player base could be responsible for every facet of the world's success or failure, but that's a completely different discussion.

Early TESO concept art and screens. World of Warcraft, is that you?

To be completely fair, it's too early to say whether or not The Elder Scrolls Online could exist in a market that's already saturated with massive multiplayer online games. To be a complete dick, the departure of this title from the roots of whence it came could be a deal breaker. Sure, ZeniMax inherits the valuable online gamer's coin, but in doing so they stand to alienate the Elderly Scrollers who have been with the series since Daggerfall, and the newbs who fell in love with Oblivion and Skyrim. Failure here could cause a catastrophic ripple effect through the ranks of one of my favorite series. So please, don't Wabbajack this up, guys.

I don't know about you guys, but tonight I plan on getting drunk and screaming at my TV until the wee hours of the night. Until either I lose my voice, my neighbors complain, or my roommate tells me to "shut the fuck up!" I can't wait. If you, like me, plan on screaming at Skyrim via your Kinect-powered Xbox 360, here is a handy list of all 200 voice commands in one nice little pdf, courtesy of our friends at Bethesda.

In completely related news, Skyrim's first downloadable content, Dawnguard, has been officially revealed with an image. Yes, the image that you see in part in this post's header. No other information has been released aside from said image. Except for the fact that it will be available this summer on Xbox 360 before any other platform. Aw yea, more drunken screaming. Let's see your PlayStation Move do that.

Bethesda has today announced the availability of Skyrim update 1.5 on Steam, as an opt-in beta. What does 1.5 include, you ask? Game Jam features including ranged and magic kill cams, new melee finishing moves, and a host of bug fixes which I can't be bothered to list. Bug fixes don't get trailers, son!

For a detailed list of the bug fixes, and exact instructions on how to opt-in to the beta on Steam, check out The Elder Scrolls communty site. The update is currently not available on consoles, but will be soon.

While we're talking Skyrim, I want to take this time to share something written by OBG contributer Eric Blackwood over on his space:

So, I was doing the quest In My Time Of Need:

The barmaid at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun is apparently a fugitive noble from Hammerfell. She claims that she is on the run from assassins sent by rival houses in her homeland and needs someone to stop them before they find her.

I weighed the options of either surrendering Saadia, or saving her. I chose to save her, which led me to speaking with a Whiterun prisoner, a member the Alik'r assassin clan aiming to kill the barmaid. I go to the dungeon in Whiterun, thinking that I would have to break this guy out. I locate him and pick-pocket a key off of one of the guards. But before I decide to open the assassin's cell, I speak to him through the gate. The prisoner tells me that he will reveal his clan leader's location in exchange for my posting his bail. I figure it's less of a hassle than breaking him out so I pay the fine. I tell him he's free and he tells me where Kematu, his clan's leader, is hiding. As I'm walking away, I hear the prisoner call the guard over to explain that I had paid his fine. The guard reluctantly acknowledges but then tells him that he can't free him because he can't find his key.

I just kept walking.

The guard must have figured it out because a short time later, three hired thugs were sent to teach me a lesson. And I found a note on one of them.

I can't think of a better way to sum up Skyrim. Random perfection in its finest form. If you haven't played it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? If you have, 1.5 is a perfect excuse to get back into it and cook yourself up a new character to take advantage of the new features. I'm finally going to get around to rolling that Mage I've always wanted to disintegrate people with.

Hey you there! I know you, and odds are you should probably be doing something productive as opposed to browsing lesser known games journalism sites (but we thank you for your hits). What should have been a quick bit of peruse is about to go right down the drain, and with it, any notion of accomplishing something at this point of the day, whenever it may be. So fair warning, if you have a deadline to meet, a date to be at, or some other time sensitive matter, turn back now. Otherwise, enjoy the next 20 minutes of pure bliss, courtesy of Skyrim.

I tend to take screenshots with a grain of salt. It's easier to make a game look amazing than it is to create an immersive world with a memorable cast and addicting action. Luckily, the Elder Scrolls series has a pedigree of quality releases.

The latest entry in the series, Skyrim, is looking pretty damn sweet. The screens we've seen so far display a huge leap in the eye candy department. This is good. If Skyrim can retain its ridiculous amount of immersion and depth of content, we're going to have a real winner on our hands. But let me not jump ahead of myself here, we still need to learn more and see more of this thing in motion. In the mean time, have some lovely screenshots!